


Here We Go Again!

by kristimoon



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Theatre, Community Theatre AU, Mamma Mia! References, Multi, characters are between 17-25, made in part to cope with the summer musical i was gonna be in getting cancelled bc of covid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:40:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25100272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristimoon/pseuds/kristimoon
Summary: Just in time for the summer season, the Olympus Community Theatre Troupe is putting on the smash hit musical Mamma Mia!, for the first time ever. Newcomer Hazel Levesque plays the role of Sophie, having just left her junior year at Valley View High, and veteran Annabeth Chase plays the role of Donna.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18
Collections: PJO/HOO Big Bang 2020





	1. Honey, Honey

Hazel looked at her reflection in the mirror in the living room of her brother’s apartment. No matter how much she looked in the mirror, her hair just didn’t look… right to her. She’d recently dyed it to a sort of auburn color, maybe it didn’t look good on her and everyone was just too polite to say anything. _I should just tie it back and everything will be fine,_ Hazel thought to herself as she walked back to her bedroom and grabbed a golden scrunchie. She gathered all of her hair together as she walked back into the living room and tied it back with the scrunchie. This showed off more of her face, which Hazel thought made her look a bit younger than she actually was.

Then her brother, Nico, walked into the living room. He was dressed as he always was, in a black t-shirt, jeans, and Converse, with the only splashes of color being his golden horn amulet and a braided orange and yellow bracelet on his wrist.

“Ready to go?” Nico said, grabbing his car keys.

“Do I look alright?” Hazel asked, adjusting her scrunchie in the mirror.

“You look fine,” Nico said, “let’s get going.”

 _Wow, that was reassuring,_ Hazel thought as she walked out of the apartment. _It’s not like this is my first lead role in a show or anything. And it’s not like a good chunk of the cast is older than me._

Hazel and Nico went down the steps of their apartment building and walked into the parking lot, towards Nico’s black sedan. They cruised out of the lot, and then Nico said, “So, who else do you know from the cast? Other than me and Jason, of course.”

“Gwen from school has a part,” Hazel said.

“Anyone else?” Nico asked.

Nico knew exactly who he wanted Hazel to mention next, but she wasn’t about to give that to him, so she said, “I recognized Annabeth and Percy from a few of the shows you were in.”

“Which shows?”

“I think Annabeth was Rosa in the show where the audience voted on the ending…”

“The Mystery of Edwin Drood?”

“Yeah, that one. And Percy was the stoker in Titanic.”

“He was. Are you _sure_ there isn’t anyone else you know?”

 _Damn, he’s persistent,_ Hazel thought as she hid her face with her hands to hide her growing blush. Unfortunately for her, Nico had to turn right at a red light, so he caught her while checking for oncoming traffic.

“I think I know who it is…” he said, smirking.

“Fine, Frank’s playing Sky,” Hazel said, “Are you happy now?”

“All I’m saying is, if you want to shoot your shot, during this show would be pretty good time to do it,” Nico said, as he pulled into the parking lot of the Olympus Community Theatre building.

“What do you know about shooting your shot?” Hazel joked, “Will flirted with you constantly for like three months before you even noticed.”

“Hey, once I noticed I asked him out,” Nico said, looking fondly at the bracelet he was wearing as he shifted the car into park.

Hazel was about to mention that she wasn’t even sure if he liked her, but then she realized that Nico would take the opportunity to joke with her more. She stepped out of the car and immediately recognized Jason’s red vintage car a few spots away from them. Looking around her, Hazel noticed a few more cars from school, but she didn’t see the car she knew Frank drove, and she sighed in relief.

Her and Nico walked into the building, and a sheet of paper taped to one of the walls led them to the room where the first read through of the show would be held. A long table was set up there, with a name card in what appeared to be the same font as “Mamma Mia!” appeared on it’s movie posters in front of every chair. There were other chairs around the room, presumably for non-speaking ensemble and tech crew members to sit. Someone Hazel recognized from school named Leo was seated in one of these chairs, next to a big guy she didn’t know. A girl named Drew who was a year ahead of her sat nearby with measuring tape hanging around her neck, presumably to measure the cast for their costumes.

Jason was seated at the long table, in front of the spot for “Bill”, talking to a person Hazel thought must’ve been Percy. The two men saw Nico and Hazel walk in and waved to them. Nico joined them where they sat, since his seat, for “Harry”, was nearby.

Hazel walked along the opposite edge of the table looking for her seat, which happened to be near the head of the table. She put her messenger bag over the chair in front of the nametag for “Sophie” and turned towards the middle-aged man at the head of the table. He turned his head and smiled at her, then offered his hand.

“Hazel Levesque, right?” he said.

“Yes,” Hazel replied, shaking his hand, “I’m Nico’s sister.”

“I’m Mr. Brunner,” the man said, “I direct most of the productions here.”

Mr. Brunner handed her a binder with a Xeroxed copy of the script inside it. Hazel sat down in her chair, leaning over and rummaging through her bag until she found a pencil and a highlighter. She highlighted her lines in the script for about a minute until a pair of hands covered her eyes.

“Guess who?” the culprit said in a sing-song voice.

There was only one person in the cast who would do that.

“Is it… Gwen?” Hazel said.

“Ding ding ding, we have a winner!” Gwen said as she sat in the seat next to Hazel, which was marked “Ali”.

“I never did congratulate you on getting the ‘Best Senior Actress’ award at the banquet, did I?” Hazel said.

“Eh, someone had to stroke Medusa’s ego every once in a while,” Gwen said nonchalantly, “I should be congratulating you for getting in with the big leagues!”

“I’m just grateful that Nico finally dragged me to auditions. But after this, I’ll probably never settle for whatever role Medusa gives me ever again.”

“You might not have to, girl. Didn’t you hear about what went down during the senior trip?”

“No, I didn’t. Please tell.”

“Medusa got like, super drunk and locked herself in one of the boys’ rooms. Last I heard the school was gonna force her to resign.”

“Good riddance.”

“Ditto.”

The girls then broke into a short fit of laughter. A voice from behind Gwen then said, “What’s so funny?”

Hazel looked up at the person who said that, a girl with long bleached blonde hair and wearing an outfit similar to Nico’s, if he got over his aversion to wearing colors.

“It’s just an inside joke,” Gwen said, “my name’s Gwen, what’s yours?”

The girl sat down in the seat next to Gwen, marked “Lisa”, and said, “I’m Sadie. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Hazel, you’ve got a cool accent. Where are you from?”

“Here, actually,” Sadie said, “but I spend a lot of time in England, since my mom’s side of the family is from there.”

“That’s so cool,” Gwen replied, “I want to study abroad there next year.”

They continued to talk about college and what they were going to study, a conversation Hazel decided not to join since she’d only just finished her junior year of high school. She picked up her highlighter and continued highlighting her lines until…

“Hey, Hazel.”

She froze. Frank must’ve walked in while her and Gwen were talking. And now he was right behind her. She glanced over at Nico, who was standing next to his boyfriend, Will. Both of them were giving her a not so subtle thumbs-up. Nico even winked.

Resisting the urge to leap across the table and smack her brother, Hazel turned in her seat. Frank was standing with his arms crossed, looking over at the other side of the room. Hazel decided to break the silence.

“Hi, Frank.”

“Uh, hi,” Frank said, “congrats on getting the lead. Um, your hair looks nice.”

Before Hazel could respond, he’d retreated to his seat next to Sadie. _That definitely could’ve been MORE awkward,_ Hazel thought.

A few seconds later, Mr. Brunner clapped for everyone’s attention.

“We’ll be getting started in a few minutes, so if everyone could find a seat…”

“Wait,” Percy interrupted from where he was sitting, “I just called Annabeth. Her, Piper, and Magnus are running a bit late.


	2. Money, Money, Money

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is basically a part 2 to the last chapter, told from Annabeth's POV instead of Hazel's.

Annabeth stared at the loading screen of the ancient computer that was supposed to be clocking her out. It had been like this for what felt like half an hour, and she was starting to get tired of standing in front of it, especially while wearing heels.

“I keep telling Blitz to get rid of this thing,” her cousin Magnus said from his position in line behind her, “wouldn’t be surprised if it’s older than he is.”

Annabeth chuckled, and the computer made a high pitched “ping” sound and displayed a bright green checkmark, which meant she was good to go. She walked over to the locker where she kept her things during shifts and took out her day bag. Normally, she’d either be heading home or to her internship, but today she was not only starting a new show, but she’d get to see her boyfriend, Percy, who didn’t know she’d taken on a second job. So along with the essentials Annabeth kept in this bag, was a change of clothes.

As she walked back to the employee bathrooms, the owner’s deaf husband, whom everyone called Hearth, was walking in the opposite direction as her.

He waved to her and signed,  _ Blitz said you and Magnus are starting a new show today. _

“That’s right,” Annabeth said, “You know the show Mamma Mia?”

_ Is that the one with Meryl Streep? _ Hearth signed back to her.

“Yeah, she’s in the movie version. I’m actually playing her role.”

_ Well, as they say, “break a leg”. _

“Thank you!”

Annabeth continued on her way to the employee bathrooms. Luckily for her, the women’s room wasn’t in use, so she slipped inside.

Like everything at Blitzen’s Best, the bathroom was chic. Cramped, but chic. Everything stuck to the minimalist palette of black and white, which seemed like a pain to keep clean, but Annabeth wasn’t the one who had to, thankfully.

Annabeth put her day bag on top of the closed toilet and looked in the mirror. She shook her curls loose for a few seconds, and then grabbed a few tissues from the sink counter. Today, Blitz had recommended she wear a gray lipstick with her store uniform. He insisted that the color complimented her eyes, but Annabeth just thought the shade looked odd. She poured some micellar water on the tissues, and the lipstick was gone in a few swipes.

Next she had to change out of her work clothes. Blitzen’s Best was known as one of the most “high class” stores uptown, so all employees had to dress accordingly. The store’s dress code was even stricter than the one at her internship, but luckily Blitz always had some spare merchandise they could borrow. Most of what Annabeth borrowed from him were accessories, since she tended to dress quite plainly in her day-to-day life. She took off the light scarf and brooch she’d borrowed, then started to slip out of her black skirt suit.

Annabeth had been working at the boutique for the past two months (since Magnus recommended her for the job), she was paid about $12 an hour, she worked about 15 hours a week while balancing her internship, so that meant she’d be able to afford the security deposit and a month’s rent at one of the condominiums in the new building uptown in just a few weeks.

_ I can’t wait until I can take an official tour with Percy, _ Annabeth thought as she peeled the pantyhose from her legs. Then she folded up her work clothes and put them into her day bag, and pulled out her day clothes. Today was a Friday, which as far as Percy knew was her day off, so she’d packed comfy clothes to wear. The first read through of a new show was one of the most interesting parts to Annabeth, especially when new people joined the group. A lot of people were new this summer, as evidenced by the fact that Annabeth didn’t recognize a few names on the cast list.

“Who’s the girl playing Sophie?” she remembered asking Mr. Brunner over the phone.

“Hazel is Nico di Angelo’s sister,” he replied, “she’s going to be a senior at Valley View.”

The shirt she’d picked to wear that day was, coincidentally, from her days at Valley View High School. The fabric was a bit work down and the design was starting to flake off, but Annabeth still loved it regardless. It brought back fond memories of her and Percy in the earliest days of their relationship.

“What’s this?” Annabeth had said when he gave it to her.

“I made it in my screen-printing class,” Percy had said, “it’s the Old Guitarist by Picasso, since I know you like art history…”

“It looks really nice,” Annabeth had said, “but I prefer architecture.”

“That’s good to know. For our next anniversary I’ll see if I can find a scale model of a blue building.”

_ Maybe I should find a copy of this painting to hang in the apartment, for sentimentality’s sake, _ Annabeth thought. She then threw on a pair of bike shorts and her walking shoes, zipped up her day bag, and left the bathroom.

Magnus was waiting for her outside of the men’s bathroom across the hall, and together they headed into the store proper. Annabeth handed the scarf and brooch to Blitz as he tailored a cocktail dress, and then walked out the door.

“So, where to next?” Magnus asked.

“My car’s parked a few streets over,” Annabeth replied.

“Why do you park so far away? You know there’s parking outside the shop, right?”

“Last time I tried I got towed. I’m not taking any more chances. Besides, it’s closer to Piper’s day job.”

Piper was Annabeth’s current roommate. They met during Annabeth’s junior year and Piper’s freshman year of undergrad, when they tended to be in the visual arts building at the same time for classes. About two years earlier, she’d hear Piper singing to herself in the shower or as she worked on commissions and tried to convince her to audition for  _ Titanic: the Musical _ , which was Olympus’ show that summer.

“I don’t know,” Piper had said, “I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable singing in front of people I don’t know.”

“They’re always looking for help painting sets,” Annabeth remembered, “you could do that and get to know everyone.”

Surprisingly, Piper agreed to at least try painting the set. It turned out that one of her childhood friends, Leo, was one of the head construction workers, and she got along well with the cast as well. In fact, Annabeth suspected that she had developed a crush on a man named Jason, who just so happened to be playing her love interest in this show.

Her and Magnus finally reached the coffee shop where Piper worked, and she was waiting for them inside, her apron hanging over her shoulder. She eventually saw them through the glass and got up from where she was sitting.

Annabeth took her car keys out of her bag and unlocked her car, which was sitting in a large parking lot across the street. The three of them walked across the street and got into Annabeth’s car, Magnus just barely beating out Piper for the passenger seat. But, when Annabeth tried to start the car, it whirred weakly before going silent. She tried starting it a few more times, to no avail.

“Of all the days your car could’ve been a piece of junk, it had to be today,” Piper said from the back seat.

Annabeth tried to start it a few more times before Magnus got out of the car.

“I’m asking Mallory to jump our car,” he said before sprinting back to Blitzen’s Best.

He’d left the passenger door open, so Piper got out of the back seat and slid in the passenger seat, closing the door after she sat down.

“You know, there’s a chance this could be karma for making me sit in the back,” Piper joked.

“At least Magnus doesn’t change the radio station every 5 minutes,” Annabeth clapped back.

Piper didn’t respond, instead taking out her phone and scrolling through Instagram. After about three minutes, Annabeth’s phone started vibrating from the back seat. She reached back and took it out of her day bag to see that Percy was calling her.

She answered. “Hi, Percy.”

“Where are you? The read through is starting in a few minutes.”

Annabeth checked her watch. He was right, it was five minutes to six.

“The car won’t start. I’m with Magnus and Piper, and Magnus is getting someone to jump the car.”

“That’s good,” Percy said, “I’ll tell Mr. Brunner to wait a few minutes for you guys.”

“Thank you so much,” Annabeth sighed in relief, “I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

And with that, Percy hung up. Piper looked over at Annabeth and made a look of mock disgust at her.

“You guys are so obnoxiously cute,” Piper said, “when’s the wedding?”

“I don’t know,” Annabeth replied frankly, “probably not until we can move uptown together.”

“Hopefully not until you get a new car that isn’t junk,” Piper said.

A few seconds later, help arrived in the form of an Irish redhead in a giant pickup. Magnus got out of it, headed towards the passenger seat, but groaned when he saw Piper and slid into the back in defeat. Annabeth pressed the button to open the hood of her car, and gave Mallory a thumbs up through the open window.

Mallory put her truck in park and attached the jump cables, then got back into her truck and started it. After about a minute, she leaned out of the car and yelled to Annabeth to try starting her car. Like a miracle, it worked. Mallory turned her car off and got out to get her cables back.

“You two owe me big time!” she said to Annabeth and Magnus as she slammed the hood of their car shut.

After Mallory left, Annabeth pulled out of the parking space and drove off to the read through.

* * *

When they finally arrived, the entire cast and crew were already there. Annabeth waved to Beckendorf, the set designer, Piper fist bumped her friend Leo, and Magnus gave his girlfriend (judging by a quick glance at the pink pronoun pin on her vest) a kiss on the cheek. Then they went to their seats at the long table, Annabeth sitting in front of “Donna”, Piper next to her in front of “Rosie”, and Magnus at the far end of them in front of “Eddie”.

“Now that everyone’s here,” Mr. Brunner said to the whole room, “I’d like everyone to stand up and introduce themselves.”

He gestured at Annabeth to go first, which she happily did.

“I’m Annabeth Chase and I’m playing Donna Sheridan.”

Piper stood up and said, “I’m Piper McLean and I’m playing Rosie.”

Everyone in the room stood up and introduced themselves, and then the read through officially started. It went by very fast, since they couldn’t sing any of the songs, and before she knew it, Mr. Brunner called for everyone to take a 5 minute “social break”. Piper got up to go to the bathroom, leaving Annabeth alone for about 30 seconds. In that time, she noticed that Hazel, the girl directly across from her, seemed to be pretty acquainted with the girl who was playing one of her friends. She also noticed a boy a few seats away (she was pretty sure his name was Frank) looking at her the same way Percy used to before they dated. It was kind of adorable.

Then Percy walked up to her and sat down in Piper’s seat. He was still wearing his polo shirt from his job at the aquarium, and Annabeth could vaguely smell fish food on him, which is why she opted out of giving him a kiss hello.

“How was your day?” Percy asked her.

“Other than my car not starting earlier, pretty good,” Annabeth said.

A few seconds later, their friend Grover walked over, and Percy and Annabeth stood up to give him a hug.

“It has been far too long, man,” Percy said.

“Agreed,” Grover said, “but my job has never been more necessary.”

“I get it,” Annabeth said, “my internship has been giving me more and more responsibilities, and I have to hunt for a permanent job on top of it.”

“Oh, I seemed to be under the impression that you wanted to be a paid intern forever,” Percy joked.

“I wish I could be,” Annabeth sighed sarcastically, “but the salary barely makes a dent in all my loans for grad school. I need some water.”

Percy and Grover continued talking about their jobs as Annabeth walked across the room to get to the water fountain. She bent down and took a long sip from it, and was quite surprised to see a head of coily auburn hair in front of her.

“Wow, you scared me,” Annabeth said, “you must be Hazel.”

She nodded, and Annabeth shook her hand. Hazel was quite dark-skinned, and wore a colorful tee with denim shorts, equally colorful high tops, and neon knee high socks. After Annabeth glanced over at her brother, Nico, who dressed like a stereotypical goth, she figured these two were definitely not biological siblings.

Hazel took a sip from the water fountain, then turned back to Annabeth and said, “You know, maybe there was a secret fourth man you forgot to mention in your diary, because there’s no way any of those crackers are my dad.”

Annabeth couldn’t help herself. She burst in laughter, hard enough that a few people paused their conversations to look over at her with concern. At some point, Piper had returned from the bathroom, put her arm around Annabeth’s shoulders (or at least tried to, given that she was half a foot shorter), and said, “You know, the small one has a point.”

“Hey!” Hazel said defensively, “I’m not that small!”

Even though she very clearly  _ was _ small, at only about 5 foot, Annabeth said, “Don’t listen to Piper. She likes to tease.”

“Well, Annabeth doesn’t understand my humor,” Piper retorted.

“How are you two playing best friends?” Hazel said, giggling.

“Acting,” Annabeth said, flourishing her hands in front of her face.

Just then, Mr. Brunner called everyone back to read through the rest of the play, so they all went back to their seats. Annabeth kept on noticing Frank glancing at Hazel, but she also noticed Hazel glancing back. Interesting.

After the read through was over, Mr. Brunner called her, Piper, and a girl named Reyna over.

“We have prototype versions of the costumes you’ll wear as Donna and the Dynamos,” he said, “and we were thinking that you could wear them and pose for the posters used to promote the show.”

Behind him, a girl named Drew (Annabeth assumed she was taking over from Silena, who had moved to Paris for an internship) held up their prototype costumes. They were a slightly darker blue than she was expecting, and had a lot of ruffles. The three girls took the costumes and followed Drew to the tunnel that led backstage. She unlocked the door that led to the women’s dressing room, turned on the light, and left. So, they walked into the room and started changing.

“Hey,” Piper said to Reyna, “I already know Annabeth because we live together, but who are you again?”

“My name’s Reyna,” she replied, “and I graduated from Valley View last year.”

“Cool,” Piper said as she slipped on her jumpsuit, “can you zip me up?”

Reyna nodded, and walked over and zipped up Piper’s jumpsuit, which hung loosely around her. Annabeth’s fitted slightly better, while Reyna’s was only slightly looser. Drew then led them onto the stage, which had a colorful backdrop hanging on it.

Mr. Brunner instructed them on how to pose while a photographer he’d hired took pictures. Annabeth got to see the shots afterwards, and she thought they looked good. This summer was gonna be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The art was made by @wisdomofchase on tumblr, give her a follow!

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr @kristimoon


End file.
